“And then it struck me” (previous post). I knew that phrase but couldn’t remember exactly from where, and then I remembered that is was from the famous Negative Capability letter of John Keats”. The notion of Negative Capability is something which I have applied to my painting, in pictopoiesis, and I wrote about this in a section of my research paper. Here is the famous Keats’ letter itself. I notice that what Keats actually wrote was, “and at once it struck me” which I like better than my phrase.
On another strand, I am rather interested in Wittgenstein not because he is difficult and challenging to follow but because there is something about him which is hilarious, as he never gives up. I like the restlessness and ceaselessness of the dance he seems to be doing with the world.
This article demonstrates how anything can be taken and argued for endlessly. This reminds me of the endless arguments that art generates. Rather disturbingly artists have chosen to base their word on/in the arguments of others. I don’t think that is appropriate, for a painter at least, I can speak from that perspective, as I am a painter. The thing is, I see painting as an invention and the more it is invented from the bottom up, the more substantial I feel that invention to be. Mine is a way of saying something which can’t be argued, not because I want to be dogmatic but simply because I have no argument with the world in the big picture. What would be the point of that? I wonder at it rather than argue with it. I am not, of course, talking about the day to day struggles which happen to us all. I have many arguments with what goes on in the human realm. The supporting structure of pictopoiesis is the painting’s own internal argument, given objectively as possible, or rather its relationship with the world.
I have felt compelled to do this as a painter in these times, I felt compelled, in making sense of it all, to go back to fundamental units and build my process architecturally. That’s what pictopoiesis is. Having had that process affirmed by my paintings (they are generally considered to be well-done at least) I am now looking into it forensically, to try and see the ways in which that well-doneness has come about. Also for what that might be worth beyond the paintings themselves. I am restless and ceaseless, like Wittgenstein.
And at once it struck me (as it has before) and I can amuse myself listing all the illustrious names that begin with W (for Waring): Walt Whitman, Wordsworth, Wittgenstein…and then if I turn it upside down we have an M for Michelangelo, if fact I could get everyone I want onto this list, and also write a short story using only words beginning with the letter W it is also endless what can be done with letters and words.
header image: Six Persimmons:
